Intrada Premieres Scores to “Joe Kidd,” “Flight of the Intruder”

This week, Intrada’s shaking off the dust on some little-heard, unreleased scores by two big names in film composing.

We’ve heard and seen composer Basil Poledouris and director John Milius enjoy great success with their movie collaborations, namely Conan The Barbarian and Red Dawn in the early ’80s. For this 1991 Vietnam War flick (a favorite topic of the outspoken Milius), Poledouris was again on hand to create a rousing, militaristic action score. Never before released on CD, this disc presents the complete score to another excellent film music collaboration between friends.

The label’s next title goes back almost 40 years to Joe Kidd, yet another example of the Western as starring Clint Eastwood. The legendary actor/director, helmed by John Sturges in this picture, plays – what else? – a mysterious, neutral bounty hunter hired to settle a land dispute in New Mexico, that ends up dispensing some justice along the way. Schifrin authorities peg the Joe Kidd score as one of his best and most interesting of the period, and this premiere CD release arguably highlights that fact better than the actual film (which truncates many of the cues heard in full here).

All titles are available to order now; hit the jump to find links to each and full track details.

No Lamentations Here: Intrada Unveils Triple-Disc Expansion of “Conan the Barbarian”

“Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought, or why we died. All that matters is that two stood against many. That’s what’s important! Valor pleases you, Crom…so grant me one request: grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then to HELL with you!”

-Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger), Conan The Barbarian (1982)

Consider the prayer to Crom answered. Intrada last week unveiled an expansive deluxe edition of Basil Pouledoris’ ambitious soundtrack to John Milius’ sword-and-sorcery epic. The original master recordings, thought by many to be lost for years, have been fully located for this release, providing the definitive word on this most excellent of film scores.

First appearing in the pages of Weird Tales in 1932, Robert E. Howard’s Conan character was a wandering warrior from the land of Cimmeria in the fictional Hyborian Age. As a young boy, his parents are murdered by the necromancer Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) and he is sold into slavery; earning his freedom as a gladiator years later, Conan (Schwarzenegger) embarks on an expansive quest to avenge his parents and defeat Doom.

Produced by Raffaella de Laurentiis (for her father, the impresario Dino) and co-written by Milius and Oliver Stone, Conan was quite the cult vehicle for Schwarzenegger, known more at the time for his bodybuilding achievements than his acting; it wasn’t until 1984’s The Terminator that he’d ascend to the upper echelon of box-office superstars. While critics had much to say about the film’s violent content and certain performances (particularly Schwarzenegger and surfer Gerry Lopez as Conan’s companion Subotai), the film was a worldwide success both in theaters and on video. (A sequel, Conan The Destroyer, followed, as did a 2011 film with Jason Momoa as the titular hero; in October, Universal announced plans for another film, The Legend of Conan, to star Schwarzenegger once more.)

The late, great Basil Pouledoris, a friend and collaborator of writer-director Milius, enjoyed several firsts on the Conan score – a project Milius invited him to partake in before a single foot of film was shot. Conan was his first large-scale orchestral score, and one of the first to extensively use music-editing software (the Musync program) in its creation. Recalling classical works by Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Wagner and Carl Orff, the ambitious Conan – recorded with a 90-piece orchestra and 24-member choir in Rome – has rarely been heard as the composer intended: De Laurentiis balked at the cost of a stereo soundtrack, so Conan was originally released in mono. Furthermore, few releases bypassed the 48 minute LP running time as originally issued by MCA at the time of release. (There was a slightly expanded CD from Varese Sarabande in 1992, featuring extras from an incomplete two-track 1/4″ master from Pouledoris’ personal collection, and a complete re-recording by Tadlow Records a few years back.)

Now, though, Intrada presents just about everything you could want of the original Conan score on three discs: two containing the original film score, mastered from the original 2″ 24-track & 1/2″ three-track stereo session masters; eight early and alternate takes, and even the remastered MCA LP. It’s some three hours of music, sounding fresher than ever and available as an unlimited pressing for all to enjoy. Nick Redman and Intrada head honcho Douglass Fake provide liner notes.

Order the deluxe Conan and check out its contents after the jump!

Intrada Rescues “White Fang” from the Wild

Intrada’s latest releases were supposed to be a double shot of Disney, but changes in the label’s schedule have yielded just one new title for this week: the first release of the multifaceted score to 1991’s live-action Disney flick White Fang.

Based on Jack London’s novel of the same name, White Fang told the tale of a Yukon explorer (Ethan Hawke) and the wolfdog he befriends. The acclaimed film’s music was conducted primarily by two very different composers: an orchestral old hand in Basil Pouledoris, and a synthesizer-based upstart in Hans Zimmer. Both mens’ works appeared in the finished film, with slightly more emphasis on Pouledoris.

But because Intrada knows how to treat soundtrack fans, they’ve included both over two discs. Both scores receive their premiere releases in this set, sourced from the original analog (for Pouledoris) and digital (for Zimmer) masters kept in perfect condition in Disney’s fabled vaults.

Order your copy now, after the jump!

Johnny Mathis, Alfred Newman and Basil Poledouris Coming Soon From La-La Land

Let’s hope all of you film score fans out there have been saving your pennies!  On Monday, Kritzerland will unveil its latest classic soundtrack release (watch this very space for that news!) and the very next day, La-La Land continues the musical bonanza with two unique offerings.

Jean Neguelsco’s 1958 film A Certain Smile starred Rosanno Brazzi (South Pacific) and Joan Fontaine (Rebecca).  Adding to the luster, the soundtrack to the 20^th Century Fox drama about a middle-aged man’s affair with a young student was composed by the dean of film scoring, Alfred Newman.  La-La Land’s 2-CD restoration of A Certain Smile marks the label’s first major foray into the Golden Age in quite a while, and the folks there are promising future offerings from Dmitri Tiomkin and Franz Waxman, among others, will follow.  A Certain Smile has been issued with the cooperation of both 20^th Century Fox and Sony Music; Disc 1 features the expanded film score derived, and restored, from 35mm film at Fox. Disc 2 is the original LP master, remastered from the original 1/2 tapes stored in New York at Sony Music.  It includes the memorable, Academy Award-nominated title track written by Paul Francis Webster and Sammy Fain, and performed in the film by the one and only Mr. Johnny Mathis. Nick Redman (who provided the notes for Kritzerland’s astounding reissue of Hugo Friedhofer’s score to One-Eyed Jacks) has produced the first disc while Didier C. Deutsch and Mark Wilder produced Disc 2.  Wilder (currently doing an exceptional job remastering the CTI catalogue) also handled the remastering chores for that disc, while Dan Hersch (a name familiar to Rhino aficionados) tackled Disc 1.   Julie Kirgo provides in depth notes on the score and the film itself in a 20-page booklet.  A Certain Smile is a limited edition of 2,500 units.

Hit the jump and you’ll find yourself spellbound…